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In the video below, financial planner Joel Johnson explains why being honest with yourself is the best policy, even if the financial truth hurts:

There are plenty of things to worry about when it comes to your finances: Are you saving enough? Is your debt dragging you down? Will you be able to afford retirement or sending a child to college?

Those types of questions have their place, but they aren’t a starting point. To Joel Johnson, a Connecticut-based financial planner, the starting point is an honest assessment of your financial standing.

Johnson’s firm Johnson Brunetti manages more than $300 million in client assets, and he says the first thing he tries to do is get a handle on reality with three key questions:

What are your goals?

What are your job prospects for the next 5-10 years?

How much debt do you have?

“Don’t be afraid to look at the problems,” he says, because when you’re honest about those the solutions often present themselves.

For more from Johnson, including the difference between good debt and bad debt, please watch the video interview at the top of this post.